Eyewear frame assemblies often need to be impact resistant, such as when worn for sporting activities. Likewise, retention of lenses within the frame assemblies under impact may be highly desirable. For example, ASTM F803 is a stringent standard governing impact resistance requirements for eyewear worn during sporting activities. Thermoplastic materials, for example polycarbonate, may be materials of choice for eyewear frames meeting the ASTM F803 requirements used for non Rx-able frames known as Plano frames. For prescription eyewear, there may be a need for a way to insert the lenses and still maintain the impact strength of the material. However, most existing eyewear frames do not provide the impact resistance or the lens retention required by ASTM F803. Wearing such eyewear frames during a sporting activity could result in serious injury to wearers if the frames and/or the lenses are not able to sustain impacts. Some other materials may require an excessively thick eyewear frame to meet the impact resistance requirements, so that the resulting eyewear frames are aesthetically undesirable, bulky and awkward for wearers.
A need may exist for eyewear frames that allow for insertion of lenses without affecting the impact resistance of the eyewear frames and still provide aesthetically pleasing and efficient eyewear frames.